2007-10-23

Åland held a parliamentary election last weekend. Since information on this in English is pretty difficult to find, I'll repeat the main facts from Helsingin Sanomat's coverage (fi).

The Liberals (Liberalerna på Åland) gained three seats to take their seat total to ten out of 30. The Centre (Ålands Center), the previous main government party, increased its seats from seven to eight. Of the smaller parties, the Social Democrats (Ålands Socialdemokrater) lost three seats, half of their previous tally; the conservative Freeminded Cooperation (Frisinnad Samverkan) lost one seat and also has three; and the separatist Future of Åland party (Ålands Framtid) maintained its two seats. (All party websites seem to be in Swedish only.)

The previous government was based on the Center, the Freeminded Cooperation, and the Social Democrats. Liberal chair Viveka Eriksson, who received the most votes, may become the first female head of government.

As far as I can tell this blog doesn't have any regular readers from Åland, but if someone from there happens to find this page, it would be interesting to hear about how the dynamic between the various parties works. For example, the Social Democrats seem much weaker than in most Nordic parliaments. Are the Liberals perchance to blame?